How to Make Custom Screens for Porches

Available at most home improvement stores, window screen kits include everything you need to build rectangular screens.

To keep the bugs at bay and debris outside, you can fill porch and patio openings with custom screens. Building custom screens is a quick project that requires only hand tools and basic building skills. Window screens consist of a grooved, metal frame, corner connectors, screen and spline. To install spline, a rubber string that fits within the frame's grooves, builders use an inexpensive specialty tool called a spline roller.

Things You'll Need

• Tape measure
• Screen frame material
• Pencil
• Combination square
• Hack saw
• Emery cloth
• Corner connectors
• Screen material
• Utility knife
• Spline
• Spline roller

Instructions

1. Measure the height and width of the opening with a tape measure. Subtract the thickness of the screen frame corner connector's hub from each dimension. The hub is the center portion of the L-shaped connector; screen frame material slides onto the connector's legs and butts against the rim at the connector's center hub. If you do not subtract the thickness of the connector's hub, the finished screen will be larger than the opening.

2. Stretch the tape measure across a piece of screen frame material and mark the height of the opening minus the thickness of the hub on the frame material. Lay a combination square over the pencil mark and draw a pencil along the square's edge to create a straight line across the screen material's face. This line indicates the position of your cut.

3. Lay out an identical line on a separate piece of screen frame for the opposite side of the screen. Lay out cut lines on two additional pieces of screen frame material, one for the top of the screen and one for the bottom. Remember to subtract the corner's thickness from the overall cut length.

4. Cut the screen frame material at the cut lines with a hacksaw. Rub emery cloth around the ends of cuts to remove burrs. Lay all four pieces of the frame on a flat surface with their spline channels facing up. The spline channel is a small groove that runs across the length of a piece of frame material.

5. Insert corner connectors into each corner of the frame to join the separate pieces. Butt the frame pieces against the rim at the center of the corner connectors. Use a tape measure to check the finished dimension of your screen frame. If necessary, disassemble the frame and trim it to size with a hacksaw.

6. Drape screen material over the assembled frame. Trim the screen material with a utility knife, leaving several inches hanging over each side of the frame. Do not trim screen to the exact dimensions of the spline channel; you will trim excess screen from the frame after applying the spline.

7. Pull the screen taut across the frame. Press spline into the spline channel at one of the frame's corners. Unravel spline along the channel. Press the spline roller on top of the spline and draw the roller through the channel to fully depress the spline channel.

8. Roll spline into the entire frame and trim the spline when you return to your beginning point. Trim excess screen from the frame with a utility knife.

Tips & Warnings

• Secure custom screens to a porch frame with screen clips. Look for screen clips near window and door replacement parts in a hardware store.

• If your porch is not framed for screens, you can build simple frames with construction lumber or furring material.

References

• Texas A&M University Extension: How to Repair and Replace Screening on Screen Doors and Window Screens
• Michigan State University: Making an Aluminum Window Screen Frame